UN's top court backs Qatar in airspace row with Saudi Arabia
The UN's top court has sided with Qatar in a legal battle
with several Gulf states over an air blockade targeting Doha.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and
Egypt on Tuesday lost an appeal at the International Court of Justice to stop
complaints by Qatar over sovereign airspace being heard by the UN's civil
aviation body.
The ICJ affirmed the competence of the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) to adjudicate in the dispute, which has seen the
four countries bar their airspace to Qatari planes.
The four had called into question the ICAO's right of
jurisdiction in the row, which it asserted in a ruling in June 2018. They
claimed that the issues went beyond civil aviation.
Qatar says the air blockades violate the Convention on
International Civil Aviation, created in 1944, which allows planes to fly into
foreign airspace.
"We welcome today's decision by the ICJ that will see
the blockading states finally face justice for violating international aviation
rules," Qatar's minister of transport and communications, Jassim Saif
Ahmed al-Sulaiti, said in a statement seen by AFP news agency.
Geopolitical rivals
The blockades were imposed in 2017 as part of a boycott of
Qatar by the four nations over accusations that Doha was supporting the
political Islamist movement of the Muslim Brotherhood. The anti-Qatar bloc,
particularly Egypt, consider the Brotherhood terrorist organization.
The coalition also wants Qatar to reduce its diplomatic
relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia's archrival in the region.
Qatar has repeatedly denied all allegations that it has
supported terrorism and violated regional diplomatic agreements.
The boycott has seen Doha increase its reliance on Iran and
Turkey, with Tehran allowing Qatar access through Iranian airspace.
The US, which has military bases in the region, has pushed
for a solution over the rift among the Gulf states.
Diplomats and Gulf sources told Reuters that Washington has
been trying to convince Saudi Arabia and its allies to reopen their air space
to Qatar — but that mediation efforts since the start of 2020 have been
unsuccessful thus far.
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